161 posts in this topic

I don't know what it takes to tool up new castings, but I see a lot of interest in air-cooled VW's on different forums. The lack of a good, late model DUAL PORT Type 1 VW is amazing to me. I'd buy ten of them. No, I'd buy TWENTY of them if they were done right. And with the amazing detail I see in resin I know it could be done.

There's so many projects that I haven't seen done yet that would incorporate good engines- Rail Buggies, Dragsters (blown, injected, the works), and my personal goal- a 70's vintage USAC midget (or two, or three) with the proper fuel-injected bug motor.

I've bought several extra Meyers Manx kits just for the engines because they are the most detailed I've seen . And even they're badly wrong- my pet peeve being they don't actually have cylinder heads. This is just LAZY tooling. Every decent model that I look at has CYLINDER HEADS. Jeesh. All the VW motors I've seen are also old-school single-port motors with carbs and intakes that are seriously lacking in realism and detail. The Manx has a little "stick" with a ball on top for a carb and manifold. Of course, it's CHROME...

Also, no outlets for cooling in the fan shroud. Air-cooled motors that don't have enough detail to show a cooling system. Hmmm. Let's see someone leave a radiator out of a kit with a Hemi.

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You are correct and I feel your pain. I love building vw models and like to super detail the few kits that i build each year. I only have 25 kits left in my stash and i want to focus on quality not quantity.

Many kits have tried to copy the vw aircooled engine but none is perfect. The kit that I find has the best representation of a type 1 cylinder head in 1/25 scale is the MPC Kyote. The best in 1/24 is the Tamiya 66 beetle. Because this is such a small part in 1/25 scale, I have been making my own...it's really not that hard. The other issue is that so little of the cylindar head is actually seen after the engine tin, exhaust manifold and valve cover is attached. Even the 1/16 vw engine from revell of germany has a lack of detail.

Since there has been some interest in vw engine parts, I have accumulated a bunch of the best engine parts from every vw kit made (Tamiya, AMT, MPC and Monogram) and am sending them to a resin caster that is very interested in repopping them. You can see some of these parts and my vw builds on my fotki...empinut. Since I have accumulated multiple parts from every VW model made for over 25 years, let me know what you are interested in seeing repopped and I will include these in my shipment to the resin caster.

I was deeply disappointed with the toylike moldings of the new VW's by revell of Germany. I get why they did it, but find it interesting that model builders today of european cars would accept having half of the fan belt assembly not molded just because you can't redily see it. Some of the engine parts are grossly out of scale and look bad. Just gives me more motivation to do it right and push my skills.

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Thanks for the input guys. I'm working on a motor for my wife's bug, and I've got hours in the little thing. Okay, so we're supposed to learn new skills and get better and better at this hobby. It's supposed to be fun doin' this. I dig it. But it just seems really weird to me that something like the MOST POPULAR CAR EVER BUILT doesn't warrant better tooling.

And nice, detailed heads and jugs make all the sense in the world to me. I'd like to build a modern RE dragster with a blown/fuel Type-1 engine or a vintage midget (ran cool on alcohol). No cooling tin at all. Don't think that detail wouldn't be everything.

What we need is a dual-port engine. Carbs are available everywhere but I had to build my own DP manifolds. Resin-cast manifolds would be cool. We need the aforementioned dual-port heads. Jugs with pushrod tubes. Bolt-on style valve covers. REALLY need those. Properly-placed fuel pumps. 12 volt system (alternator).

Transmissions are better, but are mostly swing-axle. From '69 on bugs had IRS rear ends. If we're talkin' detail, then the difference in the two trannies is everything.

And it isn't all about my wants for a modern, souped-up engine. A PROPER 36hp engine would be cool too.

My limited work the last few months with models has shown me many issues with different cars, but there are parts available to fix most anything. On my VW I'm doing what Bill does- manufacturing parts myself. And I'm not very good at it. Yet.

I have an affinity for these little cars having owned about twenty of them before I grew up. A bunch of Baja Bugs, and one street-legal monster that turned low-12's in the quarter for about a third of the money it cost to do the same thing with a Chevy.

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Looking to have the following resin cast once I finish modifications to convert the case from an early Porsche to a T1 VW.

Original case is on the right (in the pic with only the 2 engine cases). These are found in the Fujimi Porsche 356A with the 1600 engine.

Fujimi cylinder barrels, heads and pushrod tubes are fantastic. The Head is actually cast separate, correctly. I have trimmed it down to VW T1 spec, using a bolt on aftermarket style valve cover from a Monogram Lil Van.

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Here is another option for a more detailed VW aircooled engine that would be used for a drag version, taking off the tin to show the piston barrels. You can take the bottom detailed piston barrel part from an extra kit and replace the upper engine tin part for a complete piston barrel. The part of the head that the pushrod tubes attaches to is missing and can be replicated with a thin (.030) piece of plastic. Tamiya does not mold the pushrod tubes but has molded dots on the engine case where they should attach. They can easily be drilled out.

No VW kit offers a detailed altenator because they were not offered by VW for those years kitted. I have scratchbuilt mine. I will send a master to the caster and see if it can be cast.

92mm Barrels....just going to have to pretend or make your own. Bringing back memories....my 63 Bug with an 1835, mild cam and dual 36DCNF's would SCREAM.

Deep sump....you could file some material off of the Manx or Calif Roller Bus engine case bottom and attach it to the bottom of your engine case.

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And it isn't all about my wants for a modern, souped-up engine. A PROPER 36hp engine would be cool too.

Dale

If I remember right, the Myers Manx engine is based on a 36 hp engine, guys used to whine about that the first time the Meyers Manx came out. I haven't got one to refer to but I remember that the generator stand was not a bolt on, VW changed to bolt on stands starting with the 40 hp on. You probably already knew that anyway.

Okrasa made some pretty cool stuff for the 36 and 40 hp motors, a guy I worked for had a set of Okrasa dual port heads on a 40 hp engine, he ran 28 pisdt Solex carbs (in a 55 oval window).

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Thanks Skip- I owned a Judson once, but I guess I was thinkin' Okrasa did one too.

LOTS of stuff you can do with the diminutive air-cooled bug (and any VW/Porsche) motors. Top-fuel pilot Cory McClenathan cut his teeth in an under seven-second nitro rail that was built around the VW platform. It would be hard to build a model to duplicate that technology. Not impossible, but certainly out of my skill and comfort range.

I have a couple of sprint car frames that I've shortened to make 70's/80's era midgets. I'm going to put a VW in one of them if I have to hand-carve/machine every part.

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I know that I'm going to need one of these resin motors for a Baja bug I'm building. But I could also use a trans from a Bus. When these get resin cast, will copies be available for sale? Or can I cast my own with that Alumilite kit I saw at Hobby Lobby?

I've noticed that all the air cooled VWs that I've spotted so far ALL have swing axle transmissions. For my Baja, I suppose that I will have to scratch build a long travel IRS but I've never done any scratch building before. So I'm winging it here.